Post by wildfire on Feb 16, 2005 8:42:28 GMT -5
Johnny You Hardly Knew Him
What made Abe Lincoln look the way he did-gawky, angular, taller than he really was?
Dr. Harold Schwartz of the University of Southern California believes he knows THE REST OF THE STORY.
Dr. Schwartz is perhaps the world's leading authority on a genetic disorder known as Marfan's syndrome. It affects the body's connective tissue. Dr. Schwartz says President Lincoln had Marfan's, unquestionably. In fact, he has been studying Abe's condition for the past twenty-four years, since 1959.
It is well known that Lincoln's arms, legs, hands, feet were disproportionately long, even for a man of his height. Lincoln himself once observed that there wasn't a lumberjack in Maine "with longer arms than mine."
From the casts of Lincoln hands, sculptors have noted that the first bone in the middle finger is almost half an inch longer than that of most people's hands. Lincoln contemporaries often described the president's legs as "spider like.” Remarkably, that is the same phrase used in a description of Marfan's syndrome by French physician
Bernard-Jean Marfan, for whom the disease is named. From photographs and casts and contemporary observations and even Lincoln's own words, Dr. Harold Schwartz has become convinced of Abe's condition. Even the habitual squint of Lincoln's left eye, says the doctor, is a symptom of Marfan's.
He first became interested in Lincoln's case in 1959, after examining a young boy with Marfan's syndrome. Dr. Schwartz learned that the child's maternal grandfather also had Marfan's. His last name was Lincoln. Yes, a distant relative of Abe's.
Dr. Schwartz then recalled the detailed descriptions of Lincoln from Sandburg's biography, and suddenly everything fell into place. In the years since, Dr. Schwartz has
traced the Lincoln Marfan gene all the way back to England, through four centuries of the Lincoln family tree.
And still more incredible evidence, in 1863 president Lincoln had his picture taken sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, the left leg over the right. Lincoln's left foot, therefore, was suspended above the floor.
When that picture was developed, Lincoln had noticed that his left foot seemed out of focus. Everything else in the picture was sharp, clear. Only Lincoln's left foot was blurry.
The president asked a friend if this imperfection was the photographer's fault. The friend, a fellow named Noah Brooks, said definitely not.
He asked Lincoln to sit in a chair with his legs crossed, as he had for the photograph.
Lincoln sat, crossed his legs. To the president's astonishment his left foot was throbbing, actually moving enough to blur a photographic image!
Dr. Schwartz recognizes this as "aortic regurgitation," which causes a pulse so strong that it can shake the lower part of the leg. The condition is related to Marfan's syndrome.
Just think how history might have changed had John Wilkes Booth known THE REST OF THE STORY. . . .
There is one thing more you ought to know about Marfan's. It is incurable. And the disease or the complications thereof are ultimately fatal.
Dr. Schwartz, determining the degree to which Lincoln's case had advanced, is convinced the president would have been dead within a year. Had he not been assassinated first.
What that says is: John Booth wasted his time and his own life . . . murdering a dead man!
What made Abe Lincoln look the way he did-gawky, angular, taller than he really was?
Dr. Harold Schwartz of the University of Southern California believes he knows THE REST OF THE STORY.
Dr. Schwartz is perhaps the world's leading authority on a genetic disorder known as Marfan's syndrome. It affects the body's connective tissue. Dr. Schwartz says President Lincoln had Marfan's, unquestionably. In fact, he has been studying Abe's condition for the past twenty-four years, since 1959.
It is well known that Lincoln's arms, legs, hands, feet were disproportionately long, even for a man of his height. Lincoln himself once observed that there wasn't a lumberjack in Maine "with longer arms than mine."
From the casts of Lincoln hands, sculptors have noted that the first bone in the middle finger is almost half an inch longer than that of most people's hands. Lincoln contemporaries often described the president's legs as "spider like.” Remarkably, that is the same phrase used in a description of Marfan's syndrome by French physician
Bernard-Jean Marfan, for whom the disease is named. From photographs and casts and contemporary observations and even Lincoln's own words, Dr. Harold Schwartz has become convinced of Abe's condition. Even the habitual squint of Lincoln's left eye, says the doctor, is a symptom of Marfan's.
He first became interested in Lincoln's case in 1959, after examining a young boy with Marfan's syndrome. Dr. Schwartz learned that the child's maternal grandfather also had Marfan's. His last name was Lincoln. Yes, a distant relative of Abe's.
Dr. Schwartz then recalled the detailed descriptions of Lincoln from Sandburg's biography, and suddenly everything fell into place. In the years since, Dr. Schwartz has
traced the Lincoln Marfan gene all the way back to England, through four centuries of the Lincoln family tree.
And still more incredible evidence, in 1863 president Lincoln had his picture taken sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, the left leg over the right. Lincoln's left foot, therefore, was suspended above the floor.
When that picture was developed, Lincoln had noticed that his left foot seemed out of focus. Everything else in the picture was sharp, clear. Only Lincoln's left foot was blurry.
The president asked a friend if this imperfection was the photographer's fault. The friend, a fellow named Noah Brooks, said definitely not.
He asked Lincoln to sit in a chair with his legs crossed, as he had for the photograph.
Lincoln sat, crossed his legs. To the president's astonishment his left foot was throbbing, actually moving enough to blur a photographic image!
Dr. Schwartz recognizes this as "aortic regurgitation," which causes a pulse so strong that it can shake the lower part of the leg. The condition is related to Marfan's syndrome.
Just think how history might have changed had John Wilkes Booth known THE REST OF THE STORY. . . .
There is one thing more you ought to know about Marfan's. It is incurable. And the disease or the complications thereof are ultimately fatal.
Dr. Schwartz, determining the degree to which Lincoln's case had advanced, is convinced the president would have been dead within a year. Had he not been assassinated first.
What that says is: John Booth wasted his time and his own life . . . murdering a dead man!
